German Wolves Prefer Wildlife to Livestock

[xchrom]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,821013,00.html



For over 150 years, there were no wolves in Germany. They had been hunted to extinction and banished to the pages of fairy tale books, where they remained a firm part of the country's forest folklore, making children shudder in the night.

In 2000, the beasts returned. A pair of wolves was spotted in the eastern state of Saxony after migrating from neighbouring Poland, and as the population slowly grew and spread westward, old fears resurfaced. Many a sheep farmer would have preferred to chase them back over the border.

But researchers have reported findings that should at least allay fears that wolves feed on livestock. Scientists at the Senckenberg Society for Natural Research have completed a comprehensive study of the eating habits of wolves in the Lausitz region of Saxony, based on an analysis of their droppings over a number of years, and have concluded that livestock accounts for less than one percent of their diet.

They were found to eat mainly eat roe deer, which make up 55 percent of their menu, red deer (21 percent) and wild boar (18 percent). Rabbits account for less than three percent of meals.

[bread_and_roses]

1. TY for this

I have to wonder - are they taking down boar or scavenging carcasses? My admiration for wolves is unbounded, but boars are reputed to be among the most ferocious and dangerous of prey.

[xchrom]

2. probably both.

wolves aren't above scavenging & they have the capacity to take down boar -- but again probably not the toughest one of the lot.

[bread_and_roses]

5. They're probably taking the piglets, mostly -

- I don't know why I didn't think of that right off - my vivid imagination immediately went to a pack facing a great big ferocious boar or even a sow. But of course, predators are smart, or they'd all be dead - so more than likely the young, the sick, the old, the slow.

[madokie]

3. We're starting to get a lot of feral hogs

I'm going 'shrooming this morning and where I go there is a shitpot full of wild pigs and yes it worries me cause I can't run due to my legs so I'd be dinner for them no doubt. Hogs are mean when they are cornered or you get between the sows and her piglets.
fuck

[appal_jack]

6. Be safe!

If it is legal for you to carry a pistol where you are, consider one of the AK pattern pistols. The Romanian Draco is available for $400- ish, shoots 7.62x39 , and takes all standard AK mags. This is about the minimum that would make me feel good about traveling alone in hog country.

-app

[LiberalEsto]

4. Maybe the livestock are pumped full of chemicals and antibiotics

Wolves are intelligent creatures and probably discovered the livestock don't taste that great.

What I want to know, though, is what kind of people spend years studying wolf poop?

[Nihil]

7. That was my first thought too ...

Not just the antibiotics, grown hormones and other shit that they feed to them
but also the treatments on the wool - organophosphate sheep dip marinade?

Mind you, it suggests that wolves have more discerning taste than humans ...

[zeaper]

8. If they are anything like the wolves we have in Montana-

they will move to the livestock after the wildlife has been depleted.